Search results for ""Collective""

Isaac Penington was a leading Quaker when the movement first emerged during the confusion and crisis of the English Civil War. Inspiring people to move toward a new vision of peace, equality, generosity and integrity, Penington saw the potential in everyone to help create such a new world. Like other Quaker leaders, he discovered that silently waiting on the divine helps us better understand ourselves and others so that we are more able to respond to life's challenges with openness, confidence and courage. In Exploring Isaac Penington: Seventeenth-Century Quaker Mystic, Teacher and Activist, author Ruth Tod not only draws upon Penington’s letters and pamphlets to build a bridge between his time and ours, she also uses examples and interpretations of his writings to explore the beliefs and habits that shape our lives. Tod’s fresh look at Penington's own insights reminds us just how much we can learn from those early Quaker leaders.

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It’s a kiss, a yearning fulfilled ...a torch in the night rising to show the way when we have come to the edge. Urging us to plunge into the depths and heights of love to turn the tide in our lives and this world. Uniting human vulnerability and magnificent divinity in real life, this book unleashes a grounded, enlivened path of spirituality for these wild times. You are invited into true adventure stories, refined practices and juicy wisdom teachings. Guiding you to realize and embody the fountain of love’s presence in the muck and beauty, here on Earth and with each other now. For the sake of all beings - savor deeply, connect intimately and live the greatest love story ever told!

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A brilliant portrayal of how karma works over the centuries, Atlantis and Gaia: Magic, Reincarnation, Covid and Earth Healing Today explains in easygoing style reincarnation and soul healing through natural medicines such as homeopathy and herbs. Diana Mary Rose brings famous modern-day celebrities into her writing. We see George Harrison, for instance, as a monk, and John Lennon as a famous peace man - eons before their fame today - and William Shakespeare appears in a new light, too, as this psychic author delves into his past and future lives. From Julius Caesar and Fred Astaire to Angelina and Brad, there is no end to interesting tales here. Everyone alive has reincarnated multiple times over. Karma is a merry-go-round. And underpinning the entire book is Atlantis, that mystical civilisation, for the Atlantean light shines brightly over every aspect of society today. An entertaining and thoroughly enjoyable read, /Atlantis and Gaia/ will introduce you to new concepts and blow your mind.

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Quakerism has a rich tradition of engaging science and has produced many notable amateur and eminent professional scientists in fields ranging from psychology to physics. Quakers and Science discusses some of the historical reasons why Quakers embraced science, introducing ten 20th-century Quaker scientists to explore the intriguing resonances between science and Quakerism. The distinctive Quaker emphasis on deeds not creeds inspires Quaker scientists to be particularly interested in the ethical questions raised by science. And the emphasis on continual revelation implies that Quakers have welcomed the opportunity to reformulate their religious beliefs in the face of new scientific discoveries.

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As humanity steadily decimates the global bird population, scientists and scholars are discovering that birds may have played a greater role in shaping human evolution than primates. Our distant ancestors imitated birdsong to develop language and followed bird migration flyways around the world, consistently settling in prime bird habitat. Church of Birds is an eco-history of human evolution that’s supported by recent scientific discoveries, ancient myth, and sacred texts. Across dozens of cultures, migratory birds were seen as divine agents of a benevolent sun, delivering seeds to the landscape in spring and guiding souls to a heavenly paradise in the fall. These mythic roles were ultimately incorporated into Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

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Jerusalem: The Story of a Song is a popular history of England's unofficial national anthem, which began life as a poem by William Blake, was set to music by Hubert Parry and is sung every year at the Last Night of the Proms.

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A Mysterious Traveler. A Sentient Canine. A Psychotic Patient... Grieving psychiatrist Ben Banks can’t find a way to heal from loss. But when a mystifying, miraculous and mind-bending trio arrive at the psych ward, the Doctor is forced to confront his deepest fears and beliefs about the nature of consciousness and reality - even death. With his marriage, career and life hanging by a thread, he faces demons both real and imagined, all the while being transformed forever in this inspiring story of hope, healing and renewal.

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Earth is a prison and you're living in it. It's called The Construct and its keepers carefully manage the rise and fall of humanity in order to extract soul energy to fuel the galactic expansion of an alien race... but we'll get to that. When an enigmatic magic known as the Astrig Ka'a turns D'avry's life upside down, he finds himself in a struggle to save humanity, not only in his own time and place but throughout Earth's untold histories as well - histories replete with mechanized armor, steampunk airships, wolf-borne goblins, and creatures crafted from the very void between worlds. Now D'avry's dreams have become a playground for this world-bending chaos. When he saves the girl of his dreams, in one of his dreams, he inadvertently brings her back and must figure out what the Astrig Ka'a is trying to tell him and why the keepers of the Construct want so badly to kill a crippled girl from the future. The answer to these questions may be the only hope that humanity has, not just to escape its prison, but to survive as a species.

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Discover the magic, mythology and meaning of the 25 trees of the Celtic Ogham, once the alphabet of the ancient Celts and now a system of divination that is perfect for tree lovers everywhere. This book invites and guides you to forge a meaningful and deep connection with the trees by listening to and learning from them. Each of the trees acts as a wise and insightful guide. By tuning into the energies, magic and personality of each of the trees, we can come to better understand them and to better understand ourselves. Featuring traditional correspondences, ancient kennings, folklore, divinatory spreads and so much more this book gives you a step-by-step to working with the Ogham as a practical as well as spiritual means of divination. Bring the magic, mystery and meaning of the trees into your life.

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In the past two decades, the rise of a particular commonplace in public debate has emerged on both the Left and the Right: the threat of 'the stupid.' Far from a throwaway ad hominem, stupidity has become a key trope for both explaining and criticising the election results, culture wars and the advances of post-truth. But how do we negotiate 'the stupid' in a meaningful way? Does critique and resistance depend on the mobilisation of intellect, and what does the prevalence of stupidity as a commonplace suggest about the risks of such a mobilisation? What are the resources to work through it outside of condemnation or insult? Taking 'the stupid' as a primary figure in today's cultural rhetoric, Tom Grimwood uses internet memes, film and media, alongside philosophical inquiry, to present a series of interventions in the assumptions of what makes 'the stupid' dangerous and how to move beyond these assumptions into effective resistance.

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Historically, children’s inexplicable experiences -- from telepathy and conversing with deceased relatives to out-of-body- or near-death experiences, and more -- have been theorised through traditional scientific lenses that may not have the explanatory power to account for such experiences. In Children’s Unexplained Experiences in a Post Materialist World, Donna Thomas shares research that she and other scholars, past and present, have conducted with children and young people across the world. By placing children's unexplained experiences and views about reality in the contexts of culture, consciousness and the nature of self, this book offers a middleway for explaining these childhood experiences within post-materialist science and philosophy. Thomas suggests that children's experiences could greatly contribute to a new paradigm for understanding the mystery of being human and the nature of reality.

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Radiant Circles is an examination of both Ecospirituality and the Church of all Worlds, a specific NeoPagan organisation inspired by a science fiction novel and founded by Oberon Zell, a practicing Wizard. The book ranges widely in its historical, cultural and theological exploration of the Church and discusses its role and place as both as a unique Neo-Pagan and futurist New Religious Movement.

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Muslim Mechanics is a factual and informative resource guide for Islam written for non-Muslim Western audiences. The word mechanics, as in quantum mechanics or classical mechanics, represents a branch of physical science that studies the working parts of complex systems, machines, or even organizations and institutions. Taking the same tact, Muslim Mechanics is the study of how Islamic policies, activities, and functions affect populations and organizations. Going further, Muslim Mechanics looks at the functional and technical aspects of actions and determines their impact on an organizational and institutional level. As the word mechanics would indicate, there are hundreds of policies, rules, and beliefs that make Islam tick like a Swiss watch. Dr. Brewton presents an objective and secular view of a religion that is anything but secular.

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This seven-week guide aims to aid Christians, individually or in small groups, to take a closer look at seven of the meals Jesus attended, focusing on what Jesus was trying to communicate through them, either in the food eaten or in the social interactions he had whilst dining. Each session examines set bible passage(s), frequently considering them through the lens of the stories and teachings which bookend the meal. The sessions also prioritise posing questions to support Christians in reflecting upon their own lives and how they can further incorporate Jesus’ teachings into them. This guide brings into one user-friendly volume a range of ideas that these meals explore, including God’s grace, what real purity means, how Jesus equips us to further his Kingdom, the purpose of Jesus’ miracles and the nature of Jesus’ Messiahship, as well as current interpretations of these occasions of commensality and the relevance of their historical and social context, in a language that is easy to understand

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It was a world like our own, in an age lost to time. For millennia, humans co-existed peacefully with three distinct orders of sentient beings, the mystics, each helping to maintain universal balance by governing either life, matter or spiritual energy. Overseeing this grand orchestration was one solitary being, belonging to a sacred lineage all its own, the Voduss Grei -- the Gray Mystics. Spurred by a premonition of the world's end at the hands of a rebellious human from a small seaside village, Noryssin, the last of the Gray Mystics, saw the village destroyed. The events from that night set off thirty years of chaos and discord among all beings. Lakos, one of the few human survivors from the tragedy, emerged with the singular goal of exacting revenge against not only the Voduss Grei but also all mystics. Caught amid the conflict was Thayliss, a human who had spent the past three decades living among the Ohlinn, or spirit-mystics, as one of their own. Finding his once-peaceful life destroyed, and the only family he has ever known ripped from his grasp, Thayliss must try to stop Lakos from his plot to control all mystic orders and assume the throne of the Voduss Grei.

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The Temple Priestesses of Antiquity tells the story of the Oracles and Sibyls, Seers, Psychics, Sacred Dancers and Healers of ancient civilizations. They were empowered women who enthralled those who sought their advice and served the Goddess they revered. Tales about ancient Priestesses and the Sacred Temples where they lived, prayed and worked thousands of years ago, have fascinated archaeologists and historians for decades. Living in complex temple structures above ground and in underground cavernous tunnels, they shared vows of chastity and lived a dutiful and respected life. The Temple Priestesses of Antiquity is a story of these women, some well known and others forgotten to the centuries.

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Henry, a cockney arsonist and psychopath, was the catalyst to Vony’s enlightenment. Ironically, she started out as the teacher and ended up as Eliza Doolittle, the naïve student. Perhaps Henry’s unwitting mission was to help others by telling their story. Angry at a God following the death of a sibling, Vony initially rejected religion. Eventually she realized that religion, science and philosophy are compatible; without investigating them all, the answer to a meaningful life would be incomplete. As an exercise therapist teaching classes for psychiatric offenders, as well as in nursing homes for people living out their final furlong, Vony met Henry. In her work she encountered individuals of all ages with mental, physical and emotional disabilities in contrast to socializing with the rich and famous. She sought to understand them all through a looking glass of behavioral psychology, Bible studies, philosophy, poetry, Eastern religions, spiritualists, psychics and astrologers. Whatever their weaknesses or limitations, everyone is similar at their core, and the same universal, simple truths apply to finding a meaningful life for them all.

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Woody’s Last Laugh explores a simmering controversy amid scientists, conservationists, birders and the media: the supposed “extinction” of American ivory-billed woodpecker. Among the first to identify rampant mental errors inside conservation and environmental professions, the book identifies 53 distinct kinds of cognitive blunders, psychological biases, and logical fallacies on both sides of the woodpecker controversy. Few species have ever provoked such social rancor. Why are rumors of its persistence so prevalent, unlike other near or recently extinct animals? Why are we so bad mannered with each other about a mere bird? How is it that we cannot agree even on whether a mere bird is alive or dead? Woody’s Last Laugh uncovers why such mysteries so mess with our heads. By exploring uncharted borders between conservation and mental perception, new ways of evaluating truth and accuracy are opened to everyone. Author Dr. J. Christopher Haney is a biologist, conservation scientist and lifelong birder. For 12 years he was Chief Scientist at Defenders of Wildlife. In 2010, following the Deepwater Horizon oil blowout, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service invited him to lead the largest pelagic study of marine birds ever conducted in the Gulf of Mexico. Since 2013 he has been president of Terra Mar Applied Sciences, an independent public-interest conservation research firm which he founded. If there is one lesson Dr. Haney hopes his book delivers, it is to not overvalue our thinking skills. Human reason is fallible, even among scientists and technical experts. To improve our essential relationship with nature, conservation practices will need to devote as much attention to the unbridled thoughts as the unswerving sentiments. Dead or alive, however, the ivory-bill got the last laugh on us all.

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While the past 300 years have witnessed immense growth in productive capacity, the ‘logic’ of capitalist production is now pushing progress in all the wrong directions. We’ve passed the point where our biggest enemy is material scarcity. Our problems no longer revolve around insufficient production, but iniquitous distribution - and the fact that we’re fast running out of planet - and these are problems that capitalism cannot solve. Taking in a diverse range of contemporary and historical evidence - from the Putney Debates of 1647 to Modern Monetary Theory, from John Locke to Thomas Piketty, from the Rights of Man to the rise of identity politics How Capitalism Ends navigates a path through current affairs, history, economics and philosophy and sets the scene for the conversation we, as a civilization, urgently need to begin…

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Belonging to the Earth is a collection of personal insights, stories of journeys and rituals, community events and conversations between activists, First Nations community leaders, and those practicing nature spirituality. Each part of the book offers thoughtful and personal perspectives about connecting with the land, paying respect to ancestral traditions, Indigenous cultures and First Nations people, and finding ways to practice nature spirituality with integrity. Each part of the journey of the book explores how we can all come together to work for a better future and develop a greater understanding of how we belong to the Earth.

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We’ve all seen the news of dead and dying whales, and the alarming amounts of plastic pollution washing up on beaches or floating on the tides. The oceans are in very great danger for many reasons, and it is not just plastic waste, which is bad enough. Overfishing, acidification, coral bleaching, nuclear waste, seabed mining, military testing, and climate change, are taking a very heavy toll on marine creatures of all types, from tiny plankton to the massive whales. The eponymous Dead Zones are aptly named. Many marine creatures are in danger of extinction. Life on this planet depends on healthy oceans. We depend on healthy oceans. This book takes a look at the threats to marine life, and what is being done to save the seas. It is a call to action to save Mother Ocean. The author explains how he became personally motivated to do what he could. As a singer and songwriter he wrote songs and came up with the idea for Ocean Aid concerts. Now he has written the book you are holding. He hopes to inspire you to think about what you can do. We all need to help save the seas.

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Students in Elon University’s first adventure-based learning course to Tanzania hiked to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro - millennial style. Then they wrote a book about it. The 22 upper-level students in the Core Capstone course authored this book in order to share what they learned from their adventure, and provide helpful information for those who follow in their footsteps. Most travel adventure books about Kilimanjaro are written by older adults, and tend to focus on the individual's “peak experience." Those reading Kilimanjaro, Millennial Style will quickly grasp the different ways young adults perceive their world, how their relationships are deepened, where they find adventure, and what it means to have an authentic experience together. As one of the authors wrote, "I would never want to hike to the top of Kilimanjaro again. Not because it wasn't the most amazing experience I have ever had, but because it wouldn't be with the people that made my experience so extraordinary."

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YOU ARE WORTHY OF LOVE & ACCEPTANCE Creating Real Happiness A to Z will help you to cultivate awareness and presence so you can finally understand the truth that no matter your circumstances or conditioning, you are enough. Inspired by working with clients in her thriving counseling practice, Stephani Grace has assembled key spiritual ideas and mindfulness practices that have proven to create lasting change. Wherever you are on your journey to self-love, this book and its simple, bite-sized A to Z format is designed to make it easy for you to discover real happiness and deepen your relationship with your true self. The practices in this book will help you: Accept and love yourself as you are; Develop a healthy relationship with your body; Find the right partner; Feel empowered to change your life; Find real peace in a chaotic world.

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This is a book about bereavement and also about the many extraordinary happenings and signs from the afterlife that then followed. Louise talks about her personal experience of grief, in all its facets, and in a way that will resonate with readers who are bereaved. She also details, in careful and precise language, the succession of signs that she received, apparently from her husband after his death. She describes how to start with she was very sceptical and looked for all sorts of other explanations, but eventually, she came to accept that the signs, including WhatsApps and dematerialisations, must have come from her husband's spirit in the afterlife. She explains how these signs have completely changed her understanding of life and death. This book should bring comfort to the bereaved, and will encourage those left behind to recognise signs that are sent to them by their loved ones.

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The mysterious ‘Other’ that many of us sense and that Christianity - drawing on the life of Jesus - calls God, is the starting point of this book. But, the Christian Churches are no longer conveying the wonder of the Christian mystery, the challenging nature of Jesus’ message for the world but also God’s deep, merciful love for us and the invitation into a relationship with him through prayer or through other spiritual practices including pilgrimage. Church teaching has become tired and routine. It should be fundamentally renewed and their institutional structures reformed for today’s world. The book’s final chapters consider how Christians should engage with the seemingly intractable problems - from environmental destruction to the inhuman exploitation of many people and the obscene levels of inequality - that characterize society today. An autobiographical thread runs through the text as the author, a committed Catholic Christian, draws on experiences and vignettes from his own life. The final conclusion is one of hope; God will not abandon us or his world, though we do not know how the future will unfold.

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At a time of almost unimaginable inequality, the mainstream still tries to ignore class. Radical Chains: Why Class Matters argues that denial of class is no coincidence but in fact central to the system’s survival. Exploring largely ignored histories of struggle and challenging the many myths about class today, Radical Chains puts forward the case that it is time to place class once again at the centre of emancipatory politics.

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In 2017 NatCen’s British Social Attitudes survey published statistics that 53% of the people in Britain say they have ‘no religion’ and that of those 70% of the 18-24 age-group claim to have 'no religion'. These essays attempt to say why, and are individual responses rather than a systematic examination of the question. Atheist, Agnostic, Irish, Catholic, Protestant, and Muslim views are represented. The purpose was to explain a social trend but, in the process of writing, several of the contributors have, as if by chance, produced material which is richly meditative and can be read both for information and as spiritual reflection. The Editor, Brian Mountford, is concerned that, too often, the religious views of the young are discussed by older clergy and writers but rarely heard first hand. This book is a partial remedy. Mountford has written opening and closing chapters, setting the scene and finally asking what future there is for religion.

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What do you get when you cross a music snob, a football fan, a star-gazer and a tragi-romantic loser-in-love? You get Howie. Howie lives with his brother, Ben, who has autism. Ben is funny and utterly loveable. More than anything, Ben wants a girlfriend. So when the TV show Love is Mental (a dating show for people with disabilities) is aired, Ben decides to participate. And this is where life starts to unhinge for Howie. You see, Howie wants romance too. So when he falls for one of Ben's dates, it sets him off on a rollicking journey into deception that will ultimately reveal to him that he is much more like Ben than he could ever have imagined. So Very Mental is a warm, quirky and inclusive story. It shows us that when it comes to this crazy thing we call life, we're all in it together.

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Archibald Mountbank has the power to make almost anything 1% better. Whether you want to be 1% better looking or 1% taller, Archibald Mountbank is your man. He can even boost your immune system or your willpower... for a fee. Archibald Mountbank, one of the richest (and most hated) men in Britain, is about to retire from his highly contentious "profession". But before he retires, Mountbank's Commercial Manager has accepted an offer to allow Mountbank to be shadowed by a journalist. Alistair Dodd, a cynical journalist commissioned to write a hatchet job biography, gets a rare look into the life and practices of the elusive Mountbank and discovers that everyone needs to believe in something... it's just a question of what.

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North Sea Water in My Veins is a quest for the reconstruction of an indigenous or native spirituality of the Low Countries and covers pre-Christian material from the Netherlands, Belgium and the region just across the German border. Seeking out and documenting ancient gods and goddesses, practices and traditions, this book asks the question: is there enough material for such a reconstruction? The conclusion is a resounding yes!

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The hymn of Digitalization is nothing new: We must encourage the creation of new apps. We must develop AI in order to prevail among international competition. Technology's advance will halt climate change and let robots do the dumb stuff for us. Our faith in technology is powerful because it has saved us in the past. The Almighty Machine shows us technology’s flip side. The things that once powered us toward a brighter tomorrow are already undermining our quality of life. The data stream has shattered our concentration, human relationships have been reduced to a menu of emojis, constant surveillance has nullified much of our privacy, and the development of AI could be the beginning of the end for us. We are becoming the casualties of our own success. Pekka Vahvanen's bristling and timely critique, deftly translated by Mark Jones, throws doubt on the necessity of technological development in a world saturated in tech. The Almighty Machine presents an important question: Does progress no longer make us happier?

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In eastern spiritual traditions, samsara is often used to describe worldly existence, the cycle of birth and death or the transmigration of the soul from one incarnation to the next. But the concept of samsara is actually much broader and includes psychology, universal laws of nature, the illusory quality of existence, and even the question of free will. In Samsara - An Exploration of the Hidden Forces that Shape and Bind Us, the author takes a look at the various aspects of samsara that influence our everyday experience and dares to ask, is life a setup? And if so, does it purposely push us toward the truth?

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Awakening the Lotus of Peace is a yoga book of how to go deeper in meditation to reach the highest goal of Samadhi and find lasting peace. This a detailed book of exercises, pranayamas and meditations by a kundalini-awakened teacher, explaining how to bypass or overcome many of the meditation pitfalls with reference to yoga philosophy, Patanjali and the Bhagavad Gita.

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Despite centuries of analyses and debates between scientists and philosophers, consciousness remains puzzling and controversial. It is the most familiar yet mysterious aspect of our lives. There might be different levels of consciousness, or different kinds of consciousness, or just one kind with different features. Modern research into the human brain is yet to provide conclusive answers, and we don’t know if animals, insects or plants are conscious, or even the universe itself. The contrasting range of research suggests that a new approach might be needed -- one that includes both an objective scientific view and a subjective philosophical and spiritual view -- in order to unlock the mystery. All Is One investigates how consciousness fits into a larger picture of the universe by exploring what science, philosophy, religion, and spirituality have to say on the matter, and offers a conclusive definition of consciousness that might satisfy both the scientifically oriented and spiritually oriented reader.

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The British Marxist Historians remains the first and most complete study of the founders of one of the most influential contemporary academic traditions in history and social theory. In this classic text, Kaye looks at Maurice Dobb and the debate on the transition to capitalism; Rodney Hilton on feudalism and the English peasantry; Christopher Hill on the English Revolution; Eric Hobsbawm on workers, peasants and world history; and E.P. Thompson on the making of the English working class. Kaye compares their perspective on history with other approaches, such as that of the French Annales school, and concludes with a discussion of the British Marxist historians’ contribution to the formation of a democratic historical consciousness. The British Marxist Historians is an indispensable book for anyone interested in the intellectual history of the late twentieth century.

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The concept of The Ultimate Book on Vocal Sound Healing is The Note from Heaven - a condition of bliss, where time disappears and the voice seems to sing you, rather than you sing the voice. The experience of surrendering to The Note from Heaven is overwhelming and leads the singer into a state of Oneness, where present, past and future merge together and energetic patterns and traumas can be transformed and profound healings happen. Book I: The Note from Heaven - How to sing yourself into contact with Oneness. Book II: Regressive Cell-Singing - How to sing yourself free of traumas and change emotional programming. Book III: Sound Healing - How to sound-scan a fellow being with your voice, plus a Q&A with members from the White Brotherhood.

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For a Ruthless Critique of All that Exists takes as its point of departure two profound and interrelated phenomena. The first is the pervasive sense of what Mark Fisher had called “capitalist realism", in which (to cite the famous expression variously attributed to Fredric Jameson and Slavoj Žižek) it is easier to imagine the end of the world than then end of capitalism. As Jameson in particular has noted, “perhaps this is due to some weakness in our imaginations,” and the attenuation of the imaginative function in cultural criticism has far-reaching implications for the organization and reformation of institutions more generally. This manifests itself as a waning of speculative or theoretical energy, which in turn leads to a general capitulation to the tyranny of “what is,” the actually existing state of affairs, and the preemptive disavowal of alternative possibilities. Connected to this is the second phenomenon: the prevalent tendency in literary and cultural criticism over the past 30 or more years to eschew critical theory and even critique itself, while championing approaches to cultural study that emphasize surface reading, thin description, ordinary language philosophy, object-oriented ontology, and post-critique. Together these forms of anticritical and antitheoretical criticism have constituted a tendency that has in its various incarnations come to dominate the humanities and other areas of higher education in recent years. The latter has served to reinforce the former, and the result has been to align literary and cultural criticism with the broad-based forces of neoliberalism whose influence has so deleteriously transformed not only higher education but the whole of society at large. Robert T. Tally Jr. argues that, in order to counter these trends and empower the imagination, the time is ripe for “a ruthless critique of all that exists,” to borrow a phrase from the young Marx. This book is intended as a provocation, at once a polemic and a call to action for cultural critics.

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Gareth Carrol presents a collection of "modern idioms", which have become a part of our vocabulary in the past 50 years or so. In most cases, idioms such as "raining cats and dogs", that colour our everyday communication, are deeply rooted in culture and history. However, just like words, new idioms emerge in language, and many have entered our vocabulary through, TV, movies and the internet. These modern idioms can be dated very precisely. Jumping Sharks and Dropping Mics finds the origins of these idioms, and charts their development.

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Everyone knows that being different is a good way to be unpopular, but what if you're so different that people think you are an actual servant of evil? Conform or Be Cast Out is a history of humankind's tendency not only to shun nonconformists, but to label them as devils, demons, and Satan worshippers. Beginning with scapegoats and devil figures in folklore and mythology, the book moves on to look at other aspects of nonconformity such as witchcraft, the Inquisition, spiritualism and medical conditions once mistaken for lycanthropy, vampirism, and demonic possession before concluding with a discussion on aspects of contemporary culture ranging from heavy metal music to zombie movies.

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Youth Group: Coming of age in the church of Christian nationalism follows the life of a missionary kid as he traverses the bizarre world of anti-masturbation purity groups, CD immolation parties, the culture wars, and an occasional exorcism. Author Lance Aksamit explores how and why the Evangelical church didn't simply jump into bed with but became Christian Nationalists.

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Healthy Planet offers a clear and concise overview of the global ecological crisis that humanity has brought upon itself, and what options we still have to save a benevolent climate, to restore biodiversity, reduce pollution, and heal the ecosphere of this planet, including ourselves. Since well before the Covid-19 crisis the United Nations have been emphasizing that only a healthy planet can support healthy people. The degradation and pollution of nature also poisons our own bodies. Climate breakdown and the global loss of biodiversity also threaten the human species. But what is a "healthy planet"? How does it work, how much do we disrupt the planet’s life support systems, and what changes are overdue? We have all the necessary means at our disposal, though just patching up the worst symptoms won’t do anymore, we have to address the underlying causes, including our habits, values, and paradigms. We are at a crucial crossroads, and time is running short. If we act fast enough, a dignified and truly sustainable healthy future awaits.

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A memoir of one man’s journey into, and out of, the movement that foreshadowed the modern-day “Antifa.” Between 1999-2005, as the nation convulsed with uncertainty over a contested election and the Sept. 11 attacks, A.J. Lozier attended and helped organize protests across the United States, as an active participant in the anarchist "black bloc," predecessor to the modern-day "Antifa." He was charged, tackled, swung at, shot at with rubber bullets, punched and, once, arrested. He did his fair of shoving too, all in the name of Anarchy, which he believed to be the only hope for a more peaceful and equitable society, in which capitalism was a thing of the past. This is no "behind the mask" exposé, but nor is it a work of unselfconscious propaganda. It is first and foremost a story, but one that charts how a pure-intentioned desire for peace and justice morphed into a mechanism for justifying any behavior. It is a story that foreshadows the Antifa we see today.

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There are some questions we can't avoid. Questions about meaning and morality, about belief and evidence and truth - about things that are reflected in our lives, whether or not we ever analyze them explicitly. This is the conviction that drives Making Sense of Brief Lives, first to identify with stark clarity the practical philosophical questions we face in life, and then to drive toward decisive answers.

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COVID-19 wrecked the plans and strategies of organizations everywhere, while injecting greater uncertainty into a world already undergoing disruptive social and technological change. Strategic Foresight can help us navigate through the recovery and beyond. Strategic Foresight is a systematic, intelligence-gathering, vision-building process that helps us manage uncertainty by discerning plausible alternative futures and applying the insights to present-day planning. It is ideally suited to a world upended by the pandemic and rapid transformations in the way we live, work and interact. Using approachable language and a multitude of examples, Learning from Tomorrow shows how Strategic Foresight broadens our perspectives, exposes opportunities and risks, and opens our minds to innovation in a post-pandemic world. It is essential reading for organizational leaders and those responsible for developing strategies, scenarios, policies and plans.

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The health and economic devastation caused by COVID-19 has revealed that most countries’ national health systems are inadequate to cope with pandemics. These are global challenges that call for global responses. At the heart of this book is a bold new proposal to create a global pandemic playbook that can be quickly deployed when the next pandemic strikes. Countries and their experts must collaborate to create early warning systems, preparedness, prevention, responses and containment. But who should pay the cost? Anne Kabagambe, a former Executive Board director for the World Bank Group, explores the options, and argues that to fail to learn from COVID-19 and neglect to create a global playbook now would cost far more when the next pandemic strikes.

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Preposterous as it sounds, we are not who we seem to be. Not even close. At the heart of this misperception is our deep-seated conviction of free choice. Based on emerging neurobehavioral science findings, The Deceptive Brain makes the case for human experience as a narrative illusion-an executive summary of sorts-that emerges from an incredibly complex brain. The Deceptive Brain drills down on what this finding means for the way we blame and punish, and presents a bold alternative approach to criminal justice based on blameless responsibility.

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Flowering into Awareness is a collection of passionate and inspiring essays on the nature of reality, as seen from the perspective of the unity of all life. It explains the non-dual vision of life in a clear and straightforward way, and also puts that understanding into the context of life's numerous challenges and the problematic state of the world. In an urgent and heartfelt manner, this book outlines the root causes of humanity's challenges, and also explains what it will take to evolve from our present state of ignorance and conflict into realizing the full flowering of our highest potential. Peace on Earth will never come about through political manoeuvring, but by the deep and authentic knowing that your true nature is universal consciousness, in which everything arises, exists and disappears. Flowering into Awareness is the perfect companion for everybody who is passionate about freedom, and for anyone who is dedicated to the magnificent exploration of ever-expanding spiritual transformation. If you are ready and willing to question all answers, this book is for you.

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Tom Bowman has never bought the idea that some problems are too complex to solve. With razor-like precision, he slices through the Gordian Knot of dispiriting misperceptions that lead to a sense of defeat. The result is an inspiring and practical narrative that will leave readers feeling uplifted and empowered to create a future they are eager to embrace.

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